Mora County

On Nov. 27, Esperanza Home Health Care and Hospice in Buena Vista completed their 22nd year in serving the area. At present, they are serving Mora, San Miguel, Colfax, and Harding counties. The staff covers more than 100 miles in their duties.

At a recent get- together, my friends and I seem to visit once again about the memories stirred up in our “older” brains about those horrific dust bowl days chronicled masterfully by Ken Burns on PBS. I popped into this world in 1934 so I was too small to actually remember those horror stories, but I do remember my parents often talking about that drought and the dust storms.

Sylvia Ortega, a talented artist, lives in Guadalupita, located in Mora County. Ortega has loved art all her life and has shown it in her beautiful paintings, water colors, oils and acrylic, are the media she has used to express her skill at different times.

Yes, that was me you saw roaming through our pasture, following leader dog, Tinta, recently. We continue to investigate and try to figure out what is going on with our almost summertime weather (the very warm temperatures) and the lack of snow in our vast mountain chain. Sometimes I wonder if this is the start of yet another dust bowl. Ken Burns surely did a masterful job portraying the last one recently on PBS channel.

The 156th year of the birth of Saint Gertrude was celebrated this past Sunday with the annual función at Saint Gertrude’s Catholic Church.

The Mass ended with a processional to the elementary school gym.

In the processional, the priest and the deacons followed with the cross.

The statue of the patron saint was carried along with the patron saints of the different churches of the parish. The Penitentes sang hymns all the way. A large group of people of different ages walked in the procession.

My fun father used to tell us kids there was a dodo bird that flew backwards to see where he had been. Of course, we looked for that odd bird, and we never did see one. I did tell sweet brother Bill I thought I’d seen one, in hopes he’d quit pestering me and spend his idle time looking for oddball birds.

Oh, yes, I got away with a lot there for a while, just because I was two years older than Bill.

And now as this column hits our print media, I look on yet another memorable Thanksgiving and recount the many blessings we all have here.

The Mora Independent School Board has hired Tom Sullivan as part-time interim superintendent.

This is Sullivan’s third stint as interim superintendent for New Mexico schools. Since his retirement he has served in different capacities. In November 2011 he was hired as interim superintendent for the Roy School System. He served in the Santa Fe Schools until June, and now he is serving in the Mora Independent Schools.